- Report: #400918
Complaint Review: Orchid Recovery Center - Palm Springs Florida
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Orchid Recovery Center
2925 10th Avenue North Palm Springs, 33461 Florida, U.S.A.
Phone:
561-4333226
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Orchid Recovery Center This place is a complete RIPOFF, stay as far away as you can! Palm Springs Florida
The Orchid Recovery Center is a complete Rip off. Do yourself a favor and if you are considering going there, stop right now.
Lets where where should i start.. The admissions process. During this time, i explicitly asked before i entered, what percentage of patients successfully complete the program, and their admissions cousnelor Loren, who looks like an active addict, she chain smokes cigarettes and acts like your best friend, super caring, etc this woman has no problem lying straight to your face, what makes matters worse is that the people she lies to are in the worst state and in short she is taking advantage of this. Anyways, she makes a number of lies... 1) she lied about the percentage of people who successfully stay off drugs and alcohol claiming greater than 80 percent. I found this not to be true because while i was there for almost 60 days, many of the woman were already back there for their 2nd or 3rd times.
Additionally i specifically asked her what percentage of patients complete their 30 day program. She looked at me as if i was crazy to ask that and said that all patients do... Here is the fact: Not 2 hours after i had checked in there, they were kicking out another woman. What i quickly found out about the Orchid is that they intentionally have this pattern where they basically during group session meetings will cause all of the patients to lash out at each other and develop real anger and fights, and they encourage this, yet the moment that you get all heated, they start threatening to kick you out and ultimatley they just literally kick the patients out almost daily WITH NO REFUND and just kick you to the street. They do this so they can free up beds so they can cycle through more patients and make more money.
During the almost 60 days i was there, this occured at least 15 times, where basically they kicked patients (and these are all woman who are very fragile) out for the most miinor of issues.. What is so ironic is they claim to have all this compassion and expertise, yet they really have none of either... If they did, they would truly work with the patient through this time... What drug or alcohol addict isnt going to have erratic behavior that needs to be dealt with?
Then there was my counselor, her name was melissa.. she was a former drug addict, like many counselors are, however melissa musta easily weighed 350+ pounds.. I point this out because she is a poster child for addiction transference and how this place could think that she should be counseling others is beyond me... The other thing is she constantly felt the need to remind people that she came from a super rich family, etc... who cares... go on a diet
Then there was the "accomodations/housing" ... Honestly this place was a COMPLETE dump, actually worse than that... 1) It's literally located in a neighborhood of crack houses. I was shocked to see that they would locate our housing one of the most dumpy, run down, and quite frankly scary neighborhoods in south florida.. for this reason alone i would never step foot back in there.. The house was infested with all kinds of insects from ants and mosquitos to these massive cockroach looking things called palmetto bugs, that can "fly" like 10-20 feet in s ingle jump... I turned on the shower one day and out of the drain one of them came out and scared the life out of me. i refused to use that shower ever again during my stay.
And the fact that there was drug dealing going on all around the immediate neighborhood was just riduclous.. We would point it out to our counselors and they would just say there is nothing they can do about it, etc.... Lets see what else about the housing? well, 1) it's a complete dump, all of the furniture and beds, etc are like 20 years old looking.. it almost reminded me of summer camp, but it was unfortunatley even worse and less comfortable..
The food was absolutely deplorable
They treat you like cattle.
They have in house recreation amenities, and have to shuttle you in this beaten down van everywhere you go
The owner of this whole place is completely clueless and a con-artist.. she was barely ever there, and would act "above" everyone else, her aloofness was just out of control. every single staff member there completely trashed her behind her back as well.
One further peice of evidence about how they could care less about the patients they have.. During the first call/consultation they had with my family after i had checked in, not 10 days into this program, the VERY FIRST THING MY so called counselor Melissa hit my parents up for was to tell them that i needed more than 30 days there and that because they are so busy there that it would be wise for them to comit to another 30 days for me there then to make sure it was secured... She hsa the nerve to tell them that before telling them ANYTHING else... Then she tells them if they comit to another 30 days that we have to pay for it, IN FULL, right then and there... What they dont tell you is there is a NO REFUND policy......
So after about 2 weeks there i figured out the whole scam... Basically they get you to give them 17,500 for "treatment"... they act like your best friend and savior when you are looking into the place, but the moment you are admitted they become your warden, your judge, your jury, and your exectioner.. then they schedule a family consultation about 2 weeks into the 30 days, they tell the family that you are doing well but need more time there and it's wise to comit to it now to ensure that they can have you stay when your time is up and that you need to pay in full now as well if you want to do that...
then basically for almost 100 percent of the woman that were there during the almost two months i was there, they basically wait til you are really weak and then they start poking you emotionally til you cant take it anymore and you freakout and then they throw you out and claim a variety of bullsh*t reasons why they are doing so.... Over my two months there only 25 percent maybe of the woman ever rightfully "graduated" from there... all the others either were kicked out or dropped out....
Ladies beware!!!! This place is a complete rip-off and there are many other better treatment options for you .
Michelle
new orleans, Louisiana
U.S.A.
Lets where where should i start.. The admissions process. During this time, i explicitly asked before i entered, what percentage of patients successfully complete the program, and their admissions cousnelor Loren, who looks like an active addict, she chain smokes cigarettes and acts like your best friend, super caring, etc this woman has no problem lying straight to your face, what makes matters worse is that the people she lies to are in the worst state and in short she is taking advantage of this. Anyways, she makes a number of lies... 1) she lied about the percentage of people who successfully stay off drugs and alcohol claiming greater than 80 percent. I found this not to be true because while i was there for almost 60 days, many of the woman were already back there for their 2nd or 3rd times.
Additionally i specifically asked her what percentage of patients complete their 30 day program. She looked at me as if i was crazy to ask that and said that all patients do... Here is the fact: Not 2 hours after i had checked in there, they were kicking out another woman. What i quickly found out about the Orchid is that they intentionally have this pattern where they basically during group session meetings will cause all of the patients to lash out at each other and develop real anger and fights, and they encourage this, yet the moment that you get all heated, they start threatening to kick you out and ultimatley they just literally kick the patients out almost daily WITH NO REFUND and just kick you to the street. They do this so they can free up beds so they can cycle through more patients and make more money.
During the almost 60 days i was there, this occured at least 15 times, where basically they kicked patients (and these are all woman who are very fragile) out for the most miinor of issues.. What is so ironic is they claim to have all this compassion and expertise, yet they really have none of either... If they did, they would truly work with the patient through this time... What drug or alcohol addict isnt going to have erratic behavior that needs to be dealt with?
Then there was my counselor, her name was melissa.. she was a former drug addict, like many counselors are, however melissa musta easily weighed 350+ pounds.. I point this out because she is a poster child for addiction transference and how this place could think that she should be counseling others is beyond me... The other thing is she constantly felt the need to remind people that she came from a super rich family, etc... who cares... go on a diet
Then there was the "accomodations/housing" ... Honestly this place was a COMPLETE dump, actually worse than that... 1) It's literally located in a neighborhood of crack houses. I was shocked to see that they would locate our housing one of the most dumpy, run down, and quite frankly scary neighborhoods in south florida.. for this reason alone i would never step foot back in there.. The house was infested with all kinds of insects from ants and mosquitos to these massive cockroach looking things called palmetto bugs, that can "fly" like 10-20 feet in s ingle jump... I turned on the shower one day and out of the drain one of them came out and scared the life out of me. i refused to use that shower ever again during my stay.
And the fact that there was drug dealing going on all around the immediate neighborhood was just riduclous.. We would point it out to our counselors and they would just say there is nothing they can do about it, etc.... Lets see what else about the housing? well, 1) it's a complete dump, all of the furniture and beds, etc are like 20 years old looking.. it almost reminded me of summer camp, but it was unfortunatley even worse and less comfortable..
The food was absolutely deplorable
They treat you like cattle.
They have in house recreation amenities, and have to shuttle you in this beaten down van everywhere you go
The owner of this whole place is completely clueless and a con-artist.. she was barely ever there, and would act "above" everyone else, her aloofness was just out of control. every single staff member there completely trashed her behind her back as well.
One further peice of evidence about how they could care less about the patients they have.. During the first call/consultation they had with my family after i had checked in, not 10 days into this program, the VERY FIRST THING MY so called counselor Melissa hit my parents up for was to tell them that i needed more than 30 days there and that because they are so busy there that it would be wise for them to comit to another 30 days for me there then to make sure it was secured... She hsa the nerve to tell them that before telling them ANYTHING else... Then she tells them if they comit to another 30 days that we have to pay for it, IN FULL, right then and there... What they dont tell you is there is a NO REFUND policy......
So after about 2 weeks there i figured out the whole scam... Basically they get you to give them 17,500 for "treatment"... they act like your best friend and savior when you are looking into the place, but the moment you are admitted they become your warden, your judge, your jury, and your exectioner.. then they schedule a family consultation about 2 weeks into the 30 days, they tell the family that you are doing well but need more time there and it's wise to comit to it now to ensure that they can have you stay when your time is up and that you need to pay in full now as well if you want to do that...
then basically for almost 100 percent of the woman that were there during the almost two months i was there, they basically wait til you are really weak and then they start poking you emotionally til you cant take it anymore and you freakout and then they throw you out and claim a variety of bullsh*t reasons why they are doing so.... Over my two months there only 25 percent maybe of the woman ever rightfully "graduated" from there... all the others either were kicked out or dropped out....
Ladies beware!!!! This place is a complete rip-off and there are many other better treatment options for you .
Michelle
new orleans, Louisiana
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
k
brooklyn,New York,
United States of America
my Orchid experience
#2Consumer Comment
Mon, March 11, 2013
If youre considering The Orchid and youve just read this complaint, if youre anything like I was, youve just found your reason to not go to treatment. Why would you go to somewhere like what Michelle has described in her ripoff report? It might not matter how many success stories you hear about clients who got sober there, who have stayed clean and who owe so much of their sobriety to their time at The Orchid. You might read those testimonies as the not-so-clever work of internet trolls.
I would have done that six years ago, but back then, there wasnt a bad review that popped up on a Google search. The term, troll, didnt exist. Few people believed that a black man could be elected president. Michael Jackson hadnt died of a drug overdose. The Gulf waters hadnt been poisoned by the second largest oil spill in history. The earthquake in Japan that caused a tsunami that prompted a nuclear meltdown? Hadnt happened yet. All of this is to say that a lot has happened in the past six years and the beauty of it, for me and for my family, is that I have been alive to see it. If I would have listened to one persons nay saying, if that would have prevented me from getting on an airplane headed to Florida, I would be dead right now.
Six years ago, I would have exaggerated that point, but today, I mean every word I write. I was close to death and, as far as everyone in my life was concerned, I was beyond hope. The real statistics about the percentage people who stay clean after rehab are staggeringly low. I dont know what rate The Orchid claims. The truth is, it doesnt really matter where you go to get treatment if you have the desire to get sober and youre willing to do the hard work. The statistics do say that the only thing that makes a difference is the length of your stay. The longer youre in treatment, the better your odds of staying clean.
The staff at The Orchid made me one promise- to teach me the tools to get sober and to live a clean life. They delivered on that promise.
When I sat down at the desk after being transported from a detox outside Miami, they put a piece of paper in front of me. It was made abundantly clear that if I were to leave at any point after I signed my name on the dotted line, I still owed the $17,500. For the first few days, that might have been the only thing that kept me there. Thank God for that.
The cottage houses that Orchid clients live at are beautifully furnished (or were in 2007). The beds, tables, chairs and light fixtures were from West Elm. There was benign and peaceful art on the walls. The appliances were all new. The houses were clean. The only bugs in the two houses I lived in were ones that we accidently let in by leaving our front door open.
The cottages are all surrounded by a high fence and foliage. Theres a generally uninterested cat that mills around the yard. It might not have been the best neighborhood, but other than the walk from the van to the locked, secure, alarm-rigged front door, we never set foot in the street. I didnt feel unsafe during the two months that I lived there. Plus, theres always a staff member awake and working, 24/7.
And as far as the complaints about the staff are concerned:
Every one of them is a human being and none are perfect. When I was there, I had my own issues with various therapists and employees. I worried that they would kick me out (though only one person was kicked out in my 60 days. She was my roommate and best friend there. And she was given a choice, either follow through with something or leave. She chose to leave. It might not have been a great choice, but it was a choice). I saw the character defects in them. I had beef with one of the techs that even now, I sometimes feel a tinge of anger when I think of her!
It wasnt until after I left, after I started living my own life back in Brooklyn that I realized that those feelings, those experiences had taught me a lot. Not one of us is perfect and being bossed around while vulnerable, angry and scared, I learned how to take action instead of just reacting. I make decisions in my life based on reason and emotion. I think before I speak. I am honest now. I can look people in the eye and, for the first time in my life, I believe I am worthy of respect and do not accept being treated badly.
I learned what I needed to learn while I was at The Orchid. I learned how to let go of my excuses and blame. I learned to take care of myself. I learned that holding onto painful memories and bad relationships was preventing me from being happy, from being a good sister, daughter, friend, partner and human being. My life since getting sober hasnt been easy. I have had to deal with my other diseases and that has been physically, mentally and spiritually exhausting, but I could never have done this while I was still drinking and drugging. I could only have done this sober.
Today I am happy. I have a loving, supportive partner who has, for five years, helped me through disabling disease, hospitalizations and surgeries. We have a beautiful house in the woods. We have two dogs and a cat. We eat clean, whole food. I keep trying to quit smoking that one cigarette a day I still cant quite let go of. I go to AA meetings, though not as often because Ive been so sick, but I have responsibilities at them. I have a sponsor. Today, I show up for my friends and family. Today, they trust me fully, more than they ever could before. Today, I tell the truth. Today, I love myself and that might sound contrived, but six years ago, I hated everything about who I had become. There are solutions and I learned how to find them while I was at The Orchid.
Make the decision to save your life, whether thats at The Orchid or at another treatment facility. The Orchid gave me a foundation to build a healthy life. But please dont let one persons experience at this treatment facility be the excuse youve been looking for to not go to rehab. I am proof that, if you really want it, The Orchid can teach you how to live life differently.
